Hamburg.
Fat children tend to become fat adults and die earlier, says nutritionist Dr. Matthew Riedl. He makes demands on politicians.
The course is set early: A fat child will almost certainly become a fat adult, he says Nutritionist Dr. Matthew Riedl: “It’s really very difficult to get such a child away from being so overweight when it’s older than ten. And those children are more likely to die.”
the NDR Nutrition Doc speaks in the new episode of the podcast “Dr. Matthew Riedl. This is how “healthy eating” goes from a “disaster on our plates”. He has published a new book entitled: Our Food – Killer and Healer. Why we need to do something about the catastrophe on our plates.” The cover shows a gummy bear with a knife in its back.
Every fourth older person has diabetes or a preliminary stage
The disturbing image was deliberately chosen, says the medical director of Medicum Hamburg, Europe’s largest specialist center for diabetology, nutritional medicine and related fields, because he wants to shake things up. It’s not just about curing disease, it’s about preventing it. “We are running towards a catastrophe, and most people are not aware of it. And actually, the catastrophe is already here. And in fact, we stab ourselves in the back with what we eat.”
This comparison is not exaggerated: “Worldwide, 20 percent of all deaths are caused by improper nutrition and in Germany, we assume, it is much worse. 80 percent of the diseases are behavioral and of it 70 to 80 percent from eating the wrong food conditional. In other words: the people sitting in the waiting room are almost only there to eat.”
According to him, every fourth person in Germany is obese, i.e. massively overweight, and in old age, around 60 or 70 years of age, every fourth person in the population is diabetic or has a preliminary stage of it. “All in all, over 50 percent of women and almost 60 percent of men are overweight. It’s already one in ten children, and six percent of them are really obese.”
dr Riedl: Those are the three big killers
As soon as children of Marketing machinery in the food industry exposed, they become loyal consumers of fast food, sodas, and candy, and run the risk of getting really sick. The nutritionist speaks of “the three big killers that have been proven in studies to shorten our life expectancy. These are lemonades, sweets and baked goods and also sausages. And if you combine them nicely and then do a lot of other things wrong, then we very quickly have a 15 to 20 year shorter life expectancy for men. So then we’re talking about dying at just over 60.”
Many are not aware of this and it is fatal, “because we need a healthy population. A sick population devours billions for nothing. This is money that is later no longer available for the younger generation. We will then no longer have the money to provide for our young people later in the way we are provided for now. There will be savings,” says the bestselling author of more than 30 books on nutrition. Germany is wasting resources, but a sick youth is ultimately not productive. “And we need high-performing young people who can be incorporated into the economic process.”
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Criticism: Too little research has been done on food additives
Riedl sees them particularly critically variety of finished products: “We have around 3,000 additives in our ready-to-eat foods that have not been properly examined.” Many of them have hardly been examined in terms of their effect on people. “So you throw these substances into a black box, so to speak, and you really don’t know exactly what is happening in the body. With more and more additives, for example sweeteners, we are finding out that they damage the intestinal flora. So, on the one hand, we are less well supplied with this synthetic, this artificial astronaut food, which has been optimized in terms of taste and sale, and on the other hand, we are fed substances, i.e. chemicals, that are not good for our body.”
This mixed situation led to the title of the book, says the nutritionist. According to him, ready-made foods contain hardly any protein. “Protein would fill us up. The convenience foods are very, very low in protein, so it’s easy to overeat, get overweight, and get sick.”
That’s why it’s so important to cook for yourself. 500 grams of vegetables a day are necessary, and “then we’re not talking about any prepared vegetable peelings, I have to chop them up and cook them myself,” says the nutritionist.
Demand: A Ministry of Food and Health
the Departments of Agriculture and of Health would have to be brought together, Riedl demands. “We now have the problem that the population is becoming ill on a large scale and dying earlier or dying sicker. And that’s a problem for the Federal Minister of Health, who, by the way, hasn’t really accepted it yet.” And healthy foods such as nuts, vegetables, whole grain products, milk and cheese not only urgently need to be exempted from VAT, “we would have to with inflation almost subsidize. We must allow the population to eat healthily. It has to be cheaper.” Riedl is also calling for a sugar tax.
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And it should no ads for junk food Riedl believes that there is more that is aimed at children: “Young consumers are being trained as future consumers – entirely in the interests of the food industry. And that under the eyes of the federal government. It can’t go on like this. Incidentally, we also need nutrition lessons in school.”
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